In dry conditions, the 25-year-old Swiss racer posted a 1:31.910s early in the afternoon session using the full GP circuit - narrowly beating Lucas di Grassi’s best time from last week’s two-day test with the Abt driver ending the day third overall. Ex-Formula 1 driver Jerome d’Ambrosio finished second with the Belgian taking advantage of being able to test both China Racing cars.

“Today has been good and very productive but it’s not about trying to set the fastest time, it’s about getting a better understanding of the car and the different mapping settings,” said Buemi. “The car has been reliable all day and the team have done a good job. It’s great to be in a car that you can rely on and know you can push when you need to. We still have a few issues to work on but overall it was a productive session.”

By the halfway point it was Di Grassi who led the way before Buemi lowered the benchmark beating his previous best lap by over a second and ending the day the only driver to break into the 1:31s. Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin, also using two cars due to an absent Nick Heidfeld, finished fourth ahead of Virgin Racing’s Jaime Alguersuari who only ran in the afternoon stint with team-mate Sam Bird finishing eighth from his morning run.

Trulli’s team-mate Michela Cerruti also enjoyed positive running to finish 13th with the Italian saying: “It's been much better. I’ve done a few laps and can understand a lot more about the tyres and the brakes and how to warm them up. I'm happy with the work we did today. We didn't have any special problems, the next goal is to concentrate on performance.”

Testing, which remains free to members of the public, continues tomorrow where rain is expected all day. For more information on Formula E visit www.fiaformulae.com.